Nikon Coolpix P7700 review:
Nicely designed, but is that enough?

Autofocus in good light feels pretty snappy, though as with many cameras the full-time autofocus during video shooting tends to pulse. It has seven AF mode options, one of which is a nice-in-theory Target-finding AF; once it decides on a subject, it expands the focus area to include what it thinks is the entire subject. Unfortunately, like most AF systems it's bad at guessing what the subject is, so you just get a lot more of the wrong thing in focus.

Design and features
I really like the physical design of the camera in a lot of ways. It has a true grip, not just a bump, and though it's the largest in its class that works in its favor for a lot of folks. Unlike the G15, which has a nice built-in lens cover, the P7700 still has one of those annoying pop-off lens caps.

On the top there are three dials: a mode dial with the usual manual, semimanual, and automatic modes, plus three slots for custom settings, manual and automatic movie modes, and a special-effects mode; a dedicated dial for exposure compensation; and a quick-menu dial for frequently accessed settings. That last offers the options for quality, ISO sensitivity, white balance, bracketing, Picture Controls, and a slot that aggregates the rest of your needs -- metering, autofocus type and area, and drive mode.

The camera has two customizable function buttons, one in front and one on top, which can be configured in conjunction with the front and back dials. Unlike on the G15, the command and subcommand dials sit in comfortably accessible locations.

On the back, an AF/AE-lock button is next to the pronounced thumb rest, with a large navigation dial for accessing the AF modes, flash, self-timer, and AF types. The P7700 has two close-distance options: a typical macro setting and a "close-range only" setting that's a bit annoying to have to use.

While it offers a lot of straight shooting features, there aren't a lot of other capabilities. No GPS or Wi-Fi, and only a few creative effects -- which I'm not crazy about. For example, there's an interesting-sounding Zoom Exposure mode, which produces the effect of zooming the lens toward the subject, but it only works in really dim light since it has to fix the shutter speed at 2 seconds. There's also an interval-shooting mode, but it's a really stripped-down implementation: your choices are 30 secs or 1, 5, or 10 minutes, with no control over the duration of the session or start and end times.

Like the G15 it lacks an Adobe RGB color option, which may be important only to me. Unlike that model, it doesn't retract the lens when reviewing images, which can be a real timesaver.

Conclusion
Although I never reviewed the predecessor to the Nikon Coolpix P7700, the P7100, I did review the model before that, the P7000, and I find the P770's image quality slightly better, if only because of improved color rendering. The lens on the P7700 is faster as well. So overall, unless you really need the optical viewfinder, it's a reasonable upgrade from a previous model.

I also like it just a little better than the Canon PowerShot G15, mostly because of the shooting design. But most competitors are faster, and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 still beats them for photo quality. Check out this roundup of enthusiast compacts for more comparative options.